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Chad Kodary (00:01.244)
What's going on everybody. And welcome to another episode of behind the revenue. We have my good friend Akbar Sheik on from gift tech Akbar. What's going on brother? Uh, it's been a while. How's everything going for context? If you can tell the viewers a little bit more about who you are, what you do.
AkbarSheikh.com (00:18.574)
Yeah, man. Well, happy to be here. You know, founder of the Make More Give More movement. She's a business coach, been doing it for probably a better part of a decade. Just helping, you know, online businesses, people who have a talent. We help them wrap a business around that talent and just help them scale, you know, try to help them become seven figure givers and stuff of that nature. We've handed out over 80 trophies all over the world and that's kind of our attempt at a contribution.
in this lifetime.
Chad Kodary (00:51.548)
I love it, man. And I want to, I want to peel the onion back. I want to go a little bit more into, um, into your coaching program. So I know you've been doing coaching for a while. I've been friends with you for a while. We spoke at events together. Um, tell me a little bit about like when somebody joins your coaching program, there's a lot of different kinds of coaching, right? What type of coaching program do you have? Is it primarily revolved around like funnels and Facebook ads and things like that? And if so, just kind of peel the onion back for me.
AkbarSheikh.com (01:18.848)
You know, it's interesting, man. You know, because we've been doing it for a while, we got it down to a bit of a science, right? Where it's like, you know, we've helped our clients do a couple hundred million in revenue, you know, handed out over 80 trophies. So, you know, we figured a couple of things out. What's cool about it, man, is that like...
It's unique in the sense where it's not super structured or organized. It's really not. It's really like, let me ask you this. Have you been to Vegas? Yeah. So have you been to a really nice buffet in Vegas? You leave happy because there's something there you're going to like, and there's something there that's going to make you happy. Our coaching program is honestly like that, where it's not that we just focus on funnels. Honestly, we focus on all of it. So.
Chad Kodary (01:48.348)
I have multiple times. I have, yep. Yep.
AkbarSheikh.com (02:07.662)
mindset, offers, funnels, traffic, sales, fulfillment. And then we just flood you with support. So it's like, it's, it's, it's not like people, cause I, I, what's, I have really interesting data and the interesting data is I've interviewed the trophy winners and number one, I'll tell you the commonality that these guys have. What, what makes those guys different from the people who don't have success?
The people who have had success with us, here's what they look like. They're actually just very nice people. They are givers. They don't blame anybody but themselves. They work consistently and persistently. They are disciplined. And the most important thing, they're coachable. And the most important thing is they absolutely refuse to give up.
Chad Kodary (02:42.716)
people. They are givers. They don't blame anybody but themselves. They work consistently and persistently. They are disciplined. And the most important thing, they're coachable. And the most important thing is they absolutely refuse to give up. And so that's kind of the...
AkbarSheikh.com (03:03.758)
And so that's kind of the avatar that we found over the years that like if somebody fits that you have like a really solid chance of winning. So, but to answer your question, it's like, we give people a whole buffet, man. And something like, and I always ask, cause I interview people like, Hey man, what did we do to help you get the trophy? You know, it's really cool. It's not like, Oh, I went through your program step by step. I first did the mindset, then I did the offer. Then I did the, it's like, that only happens a couple of times.
Chad Kodary (03:13.884)
I always ask people, what do you do to help you get the trophy? You know it's really cool, it's not like, oh I went through your program step by step, I first did the mindset, then I did the offer, then I did the... That only happens a couple of times.
AkbarSheikh.com (03:32.11)
But you know what I love is like, you know, it was that one thing you taught me about client acquisition, or it was that one thing, that one shift you gave my mind about organic traffic, because I never did it before, but you made me think about it differently and it took off. In other words, it's like everyone I ask, it's almost like a different story. I had one guy say, I have a module on how to like design your office for optimal success. And one guy's like, dude, honestly, that module alone just made me six figures.
Chad Kodary (03:34.044)
you know, I thought it was that one thing you taught me about my acquisition, or it was that one thing, it was that one shift that gave my mind about organic traffic, because I never did it before, if you made me think about it differently, and I did the following.
Chad Kodary (03:58.396)
I see that module alone just made me six figures. And so like, it's just like, hey man, you know, God gives everybody a gift. We've been in business since we were a kid, because my dad is in business, and it took me as a kid, the weekends to do store, we grew up in ladies clothing stores, general merchandise stores, like Mini Walmart and stuff like that.
AkbarSheikh.com (04:01.998)
And so like, it's no, it's just like, Hey man, you know, God gives everybody a gift. We've been in business since we were a kid, cause my dad was in business and he took me as a kid on the weekends to the store, grew up in Lake ladies, clothing stores and general merchandise stores, like mini Walmarts and stuff like that. And so like, I know how to grow a business and I, the thing I love about coaching the relationship is dude, you're in the box.
Chad Kodary (04:24.188)
business. And I love about the relationship is you're in the box. I'm outside the box. I'll give you a perfect example. I'm like relatively I'm not that smart, but I'm like, I'll say I'm a little smart.
AkbarSheikh.com (04:32.238)
I'm outside the box. I'll give you a perfect example. I'm like relatively, I'm not that smart, but I'm like, I'll say I'm a little smart, but like I was sitting in my office and my sister came over to my office and she's like, why do you pay so much money and rent this place? Why don't you just buy it? Like, uh, why don't you just buy a building and your mortgage will be the same and you can work there. And I'm just like, now.
Chad Kodary (04:43.26)
Hmm.
AkbarSheikh.com (05:02.158)
Think about that for a second. Like I'm not an idiot. Like I'm an adult, I have kids, I have like a successful like top 1 % business or whatever. But like I never, that thought never crossed my mind. And it's because I was in the box and my sister who's not a business coach, although she ended up doing a little bit by the way, that's a different story. She was outside the box and she saw something that I'm like, oh my God. And I get that reaction all the time from my clients because
They can't see it because they're in the box. They're too close to it. I'm outside of it. Why don't you do that? And they're like, Oh my God, why didn't I think about that? And so I love that's one of my favorite parts about coaching is that it's so natural and, um, elegant in that way. So yeah, man, that's, I don't know. I hope that there's a lot, but I hope that makes sense.
Chad Kodary (05:44.124)
Oh, that, that does. And I can relate to a lot of the things that you're saying. Obviously we've been doing coaching here at DashClicks for about seven years now, six or seven years, primarily for marketing agencies. And what, what I see, and it's funny, I say this, I actually say this one statement in the very first video in the very first module, uh, inside of almost every single course that we've shot, like the big ones. Um,
And I say there, there's literally going to be hundreds of people that come into this program and they're all going to have the exact same thing. They're going to be going through all of the modules that you're about to go through. They're probably going to be using DashClicks right? So they're going to have the same software and tools that you're going to have. Right. And what, what is the, what is the one difference? Why is that? Why is there going to be people that actually go out and crush it and make six, seven, eight, whatever figures. And then you who are in the same group, same networking,
Right. You're getting coached by the same people. You have the same software tools. You literally have everything the same. Why are you not going to make it? And the number one thing is mindset and discipline. So when you said discipline, like that's a big one. We have people that come in, you know, just to share some examples for anybody out there that, that wants to get coached, like don't join a coaching program. If you can't commit, that's the first thing that I'll tell you. There's so many people I see nowadays that join the co join coaching programs out of pure excitement.
and just instinct to just want to like go forward within that moment. And then they come in and they're in there for like three days and like, Oh my God, I actually have to do work. Or like, Oh, I actually have to do something. This is crazy. I didn't think I'd have to do anything. Right?
AkbarSheikh.com (07:24.91)
And I'll tell you something, man. This is something the hustle culture doesn't teach. Because the hustle culture, and I at times in my career have been a victim of it for sure. Hustle culture is no excuse. As a matter of fact, I'm probably on record on some podcasts and we're saying that. No excuses. I don't care. Get to work. Let's go. But the reality of life is that there's seasons. I'll give you an example. I had a client.
Chad Kodary (07:29.852)
Exactly.
AkbarSheikh.com (07:55.374)
I let him go from the program because he had, or he asked to be let go and I said, of course. He had cancer. And so like the old me is like, whatever, dude, like, okay, there's other people have cancer and they're crushing it. Like, come on, let's go. No excuse. But dude, you know, sometimes as a coach, you have to go, that's what drives me nuts. When I see like, like I saw like the, like life coaches who are not married without kids or like business coaches who never made any money.
Chad Kodary (08:22.94)
Yeah. Yep.
AkbarSheikh.com (08:25.39)
So like, I had to go through some stuff too, where it's like, you know, my sister went through cancer and honestly, my business, I, I totally let go of my business when that happened. And I'm not, I haven't been like really public about this, but dude, I was actually days away from going last year. I was literally days away from going bankrupt because I just was mentally gone. Like, like my sister was dying.
Chad Kodary (08:46.78)
Wow.
AkbarSheikh.com (08:55.054)
And she's like, like my, like 35 years old, my best friend. I'm just like, I'm just focusing on that. Like I'm just focusing on her and trying to like find a cure and like find a miracle and like, you know, travel with her, be with her. And, um, that was not a season of my growth. And if some guru came up to me, be like, yeah, yeah, yeah, whatever, get back to work. I'd probably punch him in the face. I'd be like, you have no idea what you're talking about. Um,
Chad Kodary (08:59.676)
That's hard.
Chad Kodary (09:18.268)
Yeah.
AkbarSheikh.com (09:23.086)
even though I've never punched anybody in my life. But, but, um, I understand that now more than ever, because I've been there and I've been at a phase where it's like, dude, you know, sometimes like I disagree. As a matter of fact, I just, I actually like Alex Hormozzi. I have a lot of love and respect for him. I think he's brilliant. I, I thought he was brilliant when I saw him talk years ago before he was famous, to be honest with you, but he's like,
Chad Kodary (09:25.596)
Heheheheh
Chad Kodary (09:33.18)
Mm.
AkbarSheikh.com (09:51.534)
You know, I just commented on Twitter. I was like, I was like BS. And actually I didn't have time. I was going to go into a whole rant, but he's like, um, he's like, you want to outperform your competitors? Like you can have a balanced life. Just don't expect to be the best. And that's just BS. Right. Cause he's like, the best times to work is when everyone else is not just, you want to, you want to make more money or whatever work nights and weekends. I'm just like,
Dude, this is such a toxic and unhealthy message because the reality is true happiness comes from balance. It comes from balance. Dude, like I'm shocked that these people are saying things like this. I remember giving a talk with Damon John. I think you were there too, right? At CarrotCon? Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Chad Kodary (10:40.06)
that was that i spoke about that with you
AkbarSheikh.com (10:43.694)
I was at, it was really cool that we spoke on stage with him because like 10 or 11 years prior when I was completely broke and like lost, I actually went to attend an event that he was speaking at. And at that event, he's like, yeah, we did really well. But I think he was like, I'll tell you, it's like, it didn't come without a sacrifice. Like I think he lost his wife and like his kids and stuff like divorced. And you hear a lot of stories like that. So it's like, dude, you work nights, weekends, and this night, your husband or wife is not gonna, they're not gonna be into it.
Chad Kodary (11:12.86)
No.
AkbarSheikh.com (11:13.614)
and your relationship is going to suffer and dude, no amount of money is worth that. You know? So I'm a big proponent of work life balance. Am I the most successful financially? Am I the most successful coach in the marketplace? No. Do I want to be or need to be? No. Am I, do I do very well? Yes. Am I content? Yes. And that's good enough. You know, I don't need to be the best. I really don't. Like I do believe you have the best coaching program. I don't need to be the guy making the most money out there. I don't.
You know, there's no need for that. I have kids, I have a wife, I have parents, I have siblings, I have neighbors, I have friends, I have other interests, other hobbies. You know.
Chad Kodary (11:54.076)
Let me let me ask you a question. The the and just so I can get some context. The people that your your coaching program itself. Are you training coaches? Is it mainly coaches that are coming to the program or is it just regular businesses and agencies or?
AkbarSheikh.com (12:07.854)
Yeah, they're high ticket entrepreneurs, mostly coaches, agencies existing or people who want to get into them.
Chad Kodary (12:11.036)
Okay.
Chad Kodary (12:15.132)
Got you. Is there, is there like a qualification or a metric that you have for somebody joining your program? Like, Hey, you can say, Hey, this person's unqualified. What would be an unqualified person?
AkbarSheikh.com (12:24.526)
Yeah, like an unqualified person with all due respect is somebody who's never had any success in their life. Um, because that was me for like 10 years and like, if you've never like, okay, if you've never had any success, that means that you've got some really bad mindset issues. And so that needs to, that needs to be fixed. Um, that needs to be fixed, um, before you can make any progress. Like I could give you like the.
the world's number one best blueprint on how to make like whatever, seven figures as an online entrepreneur. You're not gonna make a dollar if your mindset's messed up. That being said, like I honestly feel like our mindset training is some of the best out there. We will not take like, like, so we might get you in the program, but you might be coming in on a super low monthly plan, no commitment. It's like, we'll try out for a month. And honestly, the first month, we don't even really make any money because we do a lot of like one -on -one stuff. You get a gift.
And so it's like, we might give you like a trial for a month if we're like not sure about you. And it's like, no harm, no foul. Nobody really loses. But generally speaking, you know, we like to work with intelligent people who are really committed, who really believe in make more, give more. That's our ideal avatar. Really.
Chad Kodary (13:45.436)
When, when somebody's coming in, um, if somebody comes in with absolutely, first of all, I guess, let me rephrase the question. The people that you have coming in, are they coming in with, um, absolute cause tech tech now, you know, building funnels and running Facebook ads and webinars and, you know, doing all of these techie things. There's, there's tons of people that are not technical people, right? In fact, the majority of them are probably not technical people. There's nothing wrong with that. Um,
AkbarSheikh.com (14:09.23)
Yeah.
Chad Kodary (14:12.22)
How do you handle that? Do you have people on your team that will go out and build the funnels for them or build the systems?
AkbarSheikh.com (14:16.974)
Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Do what you do best outsource the rest, right? I mean, I'm tech literate myself. So in our program, you actually, and I haven't, I've done a crap job advertising list to be honest with you, cause it's so amazing, but you actually get unlimited like, um, tech support with us. So like, you don't know how to install the funnel or whatever, no problem. Hop on a zoom with the tech team. They're going to like walk you through it, but now actually they're actually going to just start doing it for you. Cause it's just easier and quicker. Um,
Chad Kodary (14:21.948)
Yeah.
AkbarSheikh.com (14:46.254)
So yeah, yeah, we don't have like a library showing you how to do that. I mean, that's a good idea that I just kind of thought of as you asked that question. We should have a video library explaining to people how to do that. But one thing I've learned, man, is that people, most people just want done for you. They don't want to learn how to do it. They just want someone to do it.
Chad Kodary (15:01.66)
Well, there's, there's levels to coaching. We all know it. It's, it's basically do it yourself. Right. And then there's kind of like the, the done with you and then there's the done for you. Right. Which is more on the service side. So would you guys say you're more kind of in the middle?
AkbarSheikh.com (15:06.958)
Yeah.
Yeah. Yeah.
AkbarSheikh.com (15:17.582)
We're, we're, look, I think that done for you is a bit of a racket. Um, I think we're as done for you as possible. I think that, you know, people are either very, people are very innocent, very naive in the sense that there's no such thing as done for you. Like, like think about it. There's people out there who say, we'll build you a funnel and then we'll send you traffic. Right. And we'll do it all for you. Right. And then.
You have these people buying back, oh, awesome, I don't have to do anything. They'll build a funnel, they'll send the traffic and I'm just gonna make a bunch of money. That doesn't exist. That's just like the biggest joke in this industry and has been for a while. I don't know why people don't talk about it or people don't realize it, but there's no such thing. If that would work, then dude, why wouldn't everyone just do that? That's the easiest business model in the world. Like, okay, here's 10 grand, 20 grand, 30 grand, go ahead, build my funnel, send traffic, I'll just sit here and chill and you all make the drill.
Chad Kodary (16:13.404)
It's cut, you know, it reminds me of, you know, the, the, uh, Walmart stores, the Amazon stores. It kind of reminds me of that where it's like, Hey, we're going to build you an Amazon store and you're going to make X amount of money per month and you don't have to do anything. You just sit back and you just give me 30 K and I'll do it. And I'm like, well, why don't you just do that a hundred times yourself? If you're making that money, why do you need other people to do it? Right. That that's what that reminds me of. Yeah. No. So, so.
AkbarSheikh.com (16:23.47)
Yeah.
AkbarSheikh.com (16:29.358)
Yeah, yeah, yeah, that's yeah. And those companies don't last. Most of them, they don't last.
Chad Kodary (16:39.74)
And I want to talk like team wise. So how big is your team right now? Like I know in the coaching industry, there's, you know, product specialists that are, you know, specific. You have your mindset coach, your sales coach, your funnel coach, copy coach, whatever it is. How's yours breaking down broken down.
AkbarSheikh.com (16:44.078)
Yeah.
Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Well, sorry. I had a much bigger team, right? And then like last year when I was just basically with my sister and stuff, I let go of a good amount of my team. Um, so I can talk about my team before and I can talk about it now. So right now we're in rebuild mode. I'm actually finally, as of like two months ago or something, I'm like mentally back. I got my energy back. I got my smile back. Like, although it's funny cause like I now am like, I feel like I'm grieving more than I did.
in the past year, but I'm just energetically back. I'm back in business. I mean, back in growth mode. And that started like two months ago. So, you know, I had a set of, I've always had a set of team for a while. I let go of them, but now, you know, I'm bringing them back. One is, you just bought one back. I had a sales team, let go of them. Now we're bringing them back. I had a CEO, I would let go of them.
You know, I have a director of client success who's a trophy winner in our program. She's a superstar. I hired her full time. She has one job and that's to get our clients trophies. I have a lot of coaches. I have a mindset coach, a sales coach, a funnel and copy coach, tech lab. We have a whole big tech department that we've hired. Luckily they're, they're happy to be my second cousin. They're very talented. So I, of course I've had my VA since.
pretty much day one.
Chad Kodary (18:17.052)
So when someone comes into your ecosystem, whether they have a tech issue, a mindset issue, a sales issue, a funnel issue, there's support that they can get across the board from somebody.
AkbarSheikh.com (18:25.934)
Yeah, dude, I always say turn your pain into profit, right? Like I remember like before, I didn't really offer a lot of, it was just me supporting. And so dude, I would have two Q and A's a week and each one was three hours long. And I was ready to like shoot myself. I'm like, this is a, this is like, cause dude, solving one problem is hard enough. Like it's yeah. And so imagine like six hours solving problems. It's funny as I come home and I'd be like exhausted in my wife's like, you just sit at your desk all day. Like.
Chad Kodary (18:38.396)
Mm -hmm.
Chad Kodary (18:44.604)
for one person. Now imagine multiple people.
AkbarSheikh.com (18:54.35)
What are you tired from? You don't go like, you're not in construction. You know what I'm saying? Like that's more like, his mental stuff is more exhausting than physical stuff. And so I just was burning. A lot of cool things happen in my business for me burning out actually, right? So to take a step back, when I first started all those years ago, I was doing my own sales calls. Now I was still doing six figures a month, by the way. But it got to the point, I'll never forget, I was in the middle of a sales call and.
Chad Kodary (18:55.772)
mentally.
AkbarSheikh.com (19:24.622)
I'm just like, hey, sorry, something just happened. Can I call you right back? And that was in the middle of a sales call. I hung up. I didn't call him back. It was that exact moment. I'm like, I cannot take another sales call. And so immediately I hired, I had to hire a sales team and I didn't do it before because I always thought that like, well, you know, I'm really good at it. Who's going to do better than me? Who knows my business better than me?
But then like, I remember, and this is so cheesy and quintessential internet marketing, but it just happens to be true. But we were at some beach somewhere on vacation and I get this dig on my phone at whatever it was, five, 10 ,000, 20 ,000, whatever it was. And I was like playing with my kids, like literally building a sandcast or whatever. And I'm like, huh, my sales team did that without me. And I was like, the first time that happened, I'm like, crap, should have done that a long time ago. And so, um,
Yeah. So, and again, I was getting burnt out from doing support calls. So I'm like, oh, and another thing that happened is I had a mastermind and somebody left it. They're like, Hey dude, we love you, but like, honestly, there's just not enough support here. So we're leaving. We're not renewing our mastermind. And that was like somebody punching me in the stomach and the throat at the same time. And I was like, you want support? Watch this. Okay. And I just flooded up. Like I honestly, and I'm open to being, no one's been able to prove me wrong. And I'm open for someone to do that.
Chad Kodary (20:34.075)
That's the worst.
AkbarSheikh.com (20:45.006)
I think that there is no program in our space that has more support than we do now. I've flooded it so much with support that I used to go from having six hour Q and A's that like the last Q and A I had, there was like one question for me. And I had to force them to ask me a question because I flooded it now with so much support. They're in a WhatsApp group with me. They've got a one -on -one business coach. They've got like a bunch of individual business coaches. They've got, um,
They've got unlimited tech support. They've got this and this and this. So, you know, I just, we just turned our pain into profits.
Chad Kodary (21:20.636)
What's the just for context is obviously with a lot of support comes with somebody's got to pay to join, right? You can't get support like that for a hundred bucks a month, right? So what does it cost to join your program? If somebody wants to join, what does it look like?
AkbarSheikh.com (21:32.206)
Man, we are, like, I'm not just saying this. You know, you're in the industry. I'm stupidly underpriced. And if you would ask me like, why, I honestly, you know, so I don't have an answer for you. I really don't. I don't know. I just, it's not, it hasn't been on my to -do list to look into it, but there's two deals. One is primarily $4 .97 a month for everything. That includes.
Like our software, which is a white label of GHL, but it's really cool because it has, I mean, we've legitimately spent like six figures in years building out all these like automations and sequences and like funnels. And so we give it all to them in that account. It's called give tech. And so like everything they need to run their business is there. So it's kind of like a franchise, like everything that we use to run our business, we just duplicate it in theirs. So it comes with that. It comes with working with me and my dream team daily, hands on, and it comes with the seven -figure blueprint, everything, you know, to
to build a seven figure business. That's only $4 .97 a month, which is really stupid. Or the even stupider deal is lifetime is only 10K. And that comes with a guarantee that I actually don't stop working with you until I pass you a seven figure trophy. So I mean, like these prices should be double. I think the reason.
Chad Kodary (22:50.588)
I think those are very reasonable. They're very reasonable prices. Yeah. We charge, you know, I can just, you know, relate because obviously, yes, I'm in the space of I've sold coaching. We've had, um, we did the math the other day. We've had, uh, in our high ticket coaching program, uh, which is called a DashElite Um, we, we were charging $500 a month, uh, which you could pay monthly for.
AkbarSheikh.com (22:54.158)
Yeah, I don't know. I don't know why they're so cheap. I...
AkbarSheikh.com (23:10.254)
Yeah.
Chad Kodary (23:14.492)
Um, or it was 5k a year, basically. So you would save a thousand dollars and you pay 5k or you'd spend 6k and you divide it up basically throughout the year. Right. We've had 487 people, uh, go through that program. That program has been open for like four years. Um, we started about two years after we opened DashClicks Um, and, uh, it's funny because you see so many different types of individuals, so many different types of humans.
going through this and you learn so much as a coach going through the program. Um, but that price point at the $500 a month, especially for, we had a lot of newer agencies. So I would say primarily for us, um, we probably had about like 60, 70 % of the people who are like, I'm starting a marketing agency or I want to start a marketing agency. Um, you know, what type of coaching program is a good fit for us? And the 500 bucks a month would include our software DashClicks.
They would get the course, they would get the group coaching. So it wasn't so much one -on -one, it was more group coaching. We do the calls three times a week, right? So like it was your normal coaching program, right? Um, yeah, they're all, everybody's got the same. Some people are like, no, I'm using school that I use Slack and I use WhatsApp. And I'm like, it's this, it's, it's all the same thing as long as you get the support, right? Yeah, it's all the same stuff. It doesn't matter. Um, but it, you know, for us, so we just started something that we tried maybe could be for you as a lower ticket item.
AkbarSheikh.com (24:22.542)
Yeah, yeah, they're all pretty much the same, right?
AkbarSheikh.com (24:30.478)
It's all the same, different colors. Yeah. Yeah.
Chad Kodary (24:42.332)
Um, we just, we just, oh, what we realized is all these people that were coming into the coaching program. So you can picture we had 487 people going into the coaching program, but we did a couple thousand phone calls, um, through our DashElite program to pitch. And you can imagine a couple thousand people didn't buy them. When we looked at the reason why they weren't buying, it was primarily on price. It's really, it wasn't like, Oh, the program's not good for me. I don't want to join it. Um,
probably 90 % of the rebuttals and rejections we were getting were on price. Or it was like, I'm not there yet, right? I want to be there yet, but I'm not there yet financially, right? So what we did was recently, this happened a little less than a month ago. We opened up a brand new program, which was called Journey to 10K. But because what we realized was most of the people who wanted to join, even though they wanted to join, they weren't even a good fit for that program anyways.
Right. Because that program was primarily focused on getting people to at least six figures that six or seven figures. Right. That was a main, um, and then also a couple of things that we learned after coaching 487 people. And we had a spike at, at one point, I think there was like a hundred and 140 people, um, at the same time in the group, like on active subscriptions, right? Because when I say a 487, I'm talking about in a four year span, right? People come and go, um,
But what, what happens that you realize is you do a group coaching call and like 30, 40 people show up live and you have one guy that's doing seven figures. And then you have one guy that just started his agency and you're trying to coach the same people in the same bucket. And that didn't work because the guy was that was in the same coaching program as the guy that we just started. It wasn't, he wasn't getting any value because the network wasn't the same skillset of people or the same level of people. And he had to now jump on a coaching call on somebody, you know, figuring out what prospecting meant. Right.
AkbarSheikh.com (26:11.822)
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
AkbarSheikh.com (26:30.126)
Yeah. Yeah.
Chad Kodary (26:31.612)
So we actually, we redid our coaching program and we launched it. It's DashElite disclosed. We close it down or we're closing it down. There's still a couple of people in there that are transitioning over, but now we did is called, we call it agency journey, which is pretty cool. And we split it up into three different phases and it's journey to 10 K journey to 100 K and journey to seven K. And in each journey, you're basically getting three different things. Um, you get three completely separate different courses.
AkbarSheikh.com (26:49.23)
Yeah.
Chad Kodary (26:59.452)
Um, you're also joining three completely separate coaching calls, right? So we're basically segmenting the audiences. So that way that people that are trying to get to seven figures that are already passed 100 K, well, they're all probably doing the same things, right? They're trying to do the same activities. So that's something that we launched. We launched the first iteration of it, which was journey to 10 K. We're working on journey to 100 K now. Um, and it's been pretty cool. I think we've had maybe like 25, 30 people join, um,
AkbarSheikh.com (27:13.326)
Yeah.
Yeah.
AkbarSheikh.com (27:22.414)
Yeah.
Chad Kodary (27:27.388)
It's only been like three weeks that we launched it, but it's, it's worth seeing that it's cool because when, when people are joining, they're all on the same page, which is really nice. Um, so that's kind of something that we learned across the board. Obviously as we go higher up, the, the programs will be more expensive, right? Most likely the journey to 100 K will probably be around a $500 mark. And, uh, the journey to seven, uh, the journey to one M we call it is basically seven figures.
AkbarSheikh.com (27:35.694)
Yeah. Yeah.
Yes.
Chad Kodary (27:54.428)
will be our more like super high ticket, you know, maybe 15, 20 K, something like that.
AkbarSheikh.com (27:54.51)
Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. You know, it's interesting. That's how I, because my first program is called, I think, the Seven Figure Family. And that was like anybody come and I had all different types of people, but it was like I had econ people, Amazon people, coaches, everything. And that was a nightmare to like. Because the thing is, like if someone's asked me an Amazon question or whatever, I'm answering it. And honestly.
Chad Kodary (28:13.116)
It was all over, yeah.
AkbarSheikh.com (28:22.83)
It's of no benefit to everyone else on the call. And so that's what I decided to go into. Like, all right, let's just go into like the high ticket guys, like the coaches and agencies, because that's all the same problems. And when I ask, and I'm very good at this in the sense when I answer a question for someone, everyone benefits. But you know, what you're talking about brings up an interesting kind of thing that I wanted to talk about is like, for people listening,
There's multiple right ways to do business. Like, you don't have, like what Chad just said is 100 % real and it works and it's, you know, legit and it actually works really well. But there's other ways to do it too. Like, for example, I consider myself more of an artist than an entrepreneur. And to explain that, like, I don't really want to work with new, new newbies. Like people have never had any success. They have like really dumb questions and like...
You know, I'm just too old for that. I don't have the patience for it. And I'm just not interested. So like, I'm probably not going to like probably open like a low ticket thing for those like new people because like if I have to talk to them and stuff, because it ruins my mood and my energy and my... I just don't want to... I don't want to speak about that stuff, that newbie stuff. A more like sociopathic entrepreneur or more baseline entrepreneurs like...
Dude, whatever, I don't care. Like it's business. Like we'll get someone involved in there, we'll get someone involved there. You know, they'll compartmentalize, departmentalize, they'll outsource, they'll systemize SOPs, team, you know. That's never been us, right? We've always been, we've always done business more from an artistic point of view of we work with who we want to work with, we don't work with who we don't. Like in our application page,
I've never seen anyone go into the detail that we go into. I'm like, I don't want to work with anyone who's like in this industry, this industry, this industry, or does this, or does that like, like I really qualify. Yeah.
Chad Kodary (30:27.868)
disqualifying people right before, yeah, because you don't waste your time with them. And that's great.
AkbarSheikh.com (30:31.566)
Yeah. Yeah. It's a more boutique. We run a more boutique business. I would say it's more, you know, it's, you know, there's nothing wrong with this, but it's a bit mom and pop. It's more boutique, you know, but I will say this. I know guys who are doing a lot more revenue than we are, but we're actually making more than they are because they've got these fat, fat teams that are way overpaid. They've got these insane ad budgets.
We're primarily organic. And so I know their numbers because they share it with us. And I was like, Whoa, that's crazy. We actually do better than that. That's what we want. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I don't know if they're being honest or not, but yeah, no, but you know, you don't have to be. Look here. Like I think this is one of the most important messages I'd like to give people is that like, dude, like you be you.
Chad Kodary (31:07.516)
I interviewed all of them. I know their numbers to you. Watch our podcast. Go back a couple episodes. You'll see a bunch of them on here.
Oh, that's a different story. Can't do anything there.
AkbarSheikh.com (31:29.966)
And the sense where it's like, don't look at, well, Akbar's doing it this way or Chad's doing it this way. I got to do it. No, there's so many ways to crush it. You got to do the way that fits your lifestyle, your goals, you know, the way you want to do things. Like people have copied, like make more, give more. If you want to look at it this way has been very profitable for us. That message. But people have copied us like copy and paste, like make more, give more.
And they haven't made any money. Why? Because they just thought it was a marketing gimmick, which it's not. And they just want to copy and paste it. It wasn't real. It wasn't genuine. It didn't suit them. It didn't fit them. There wasn't, there was not an energetic alignment. So, you know, we got to stop looking at what other people are doing. When I first joined Russell Brunson's mastermind so many years ago, there was a questionnaire and it said, what's your competition like? I said, I have no idea what.
who my competition is or what they're doing. I'm just doing things the way I want to do it. You know, I mean, look what I'm wearing right now. I'm wearing a bathrobe for God's sakes. It's like, you know, just do things the way that you're comfortable with the way you want to do it. And the most profitable person you can be is yourself. There's no, you know, as long as you're helping people, I'm giving them value. You're going to win. Right. I mean, that's like the main thing. Get people results like straight up. You know what I mean? Hold on. What do you think about that?
Chad Kodary (32:50.172)
Yeah, that I think that's what that that's what most people that's the mark that most people miss is the results on, um, is they're so focused on the program, the business or whatever it is that they're not focused on the people that are using it. What's their outcome? Are they getting results? Are they getting wins? Right? Because you're right. You could have the shittiest looking store as an example, but when you go inside,
AkbarSheikh.com (33:08.014)
Yeah. Yeah.
AkbarSheikh.com (33:14.062)
Yeah.
Chad Kodary (33:16.604)
If it has exactly what you're looking for, you're going to make a purchase. You're going to continue buying, right? Like I've been to restaurants that look super shitty on the outside. Like they're like, I, why would anyone step foot in this junk? Right. And then you go inside and they're like, dude, they had the best food I've ever eaten in my life. Right. So it's very, yeah. People focus. Yeah. People focus on the outside instead of focusing on the inside. And I think that's a really good point to make. Um,
AkbarSheikh.com (33:21.838)
Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.
AkbarSheikh.com (33:32.142)
Yeah, yeah, perfectly. That's exactly what I was just about to say.
AkbarSheikh.com (33:42.83)
We've always had the ugliest funnels. I think mine are a little nicer now, but there's always been spelling errors, grammar errors. You know, I'm actually like from school, I always got C's and D's in English. I just, I don't know how to do grammar and spelling actually. So, but I think the reason we've done so well is just because we've always, our focus has always been on getting people results.
Chad Kodary (33:49.98)
I'm the worst with spelling, dude.
Chad Kodary (33:57.468)
Yeah.
Chad Kodary (34:09.5)
Yeah, it's like the Amazon story. Why are they so successful? If you look at Jeff Bezos and all of his interviews, they say that they focus on the customer first. Customer comes first, right? They build for the customer. And I think that that's really important.
AkbarSheikh.com (34:19.022)
Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. That's another thing that I'm not, I'm certainly not saying that you're doing this, but other people do it. And I don't like it. They're talking about, we should not be really looking up to these guys in my honest opinion, like Elon Musk and these guys are lived, effed up lives. If you really like watch the documentaries and you see what they're going through in their family lives and their divorces and their addictions, like they're, yeah, they're messed up. Like these guys are totally messed up.
Chad Kodary (34:44.188)
Yeah, there's a lot, yeah.
AkbarSheikh.com (34:48.046)
They're not role models. We should not be looking, we should not stop comparing ourselves to Warren Buffett, our spending habits to Warren Buffett and all this stuff. Like all this is so toxic. This is all hustle culture. This is all keeping up with the Kardashians. I'll preach a little bit because it's just personal to me. I never found any success in life until I built a relationship with God. And...
God has, no matter if you're Muslim like me or Jewish, I think you're Jewish, right? Jewish, Christian, doesn't matter. The holy books, and I'm very curious to hear your thoughts on this, Chad. You want to know like,
Chad Kodary (35:21.276)
Mm -hmm.
AkbarSheikh.com (35:32.302)
Like the ClickFunnels world or whatever, like the Bible is like the dot com secret series, right? But really, man, in business, the holy books, the best books in the world for business are the holy books. The holy books teach you how to do business. They teach you how to interact with people, how to deal with people, how to set up contracts with people, how to serve people. And
Chad Kodary (35:38.236)
Yep.
AkbarSheikh.com (36:00.27)
All this mindset stuff that Tony Robbins and all these people talk about, you take out the cursing, it's like he's reading from these books, the holy books. I mean, everything they say are from the holy books. And what did we all, we all agree, all the top earners agree that this game is majority -watt mindset. And how do you get the best mindset? All the top mindset guys, Tony Robbins, they're just reading from the, they're just putting out their own twist or they're just adding cursing to the holy books. Really?
Chad Kodary (36:09.82)
Mm.
Chad Kodary (36:28.892)
They're simplifying it. Um, they're, they're, they're creating the message in a simplified version. So the normal person who one doesn't understand the holy books or, or doesn't understand anything, just can, can understand a lot of the times when you, when you look at mindset mindset trainings, it's always like this epiphany moment that you get. It's like, he said something so simple, but I didn't realize what that meant because nobody ever said it to me in a way that I could understand it. Right.
AkbarSheikh.com (36:30.51)
Yeah.
AkbarSheikh.com (36:37.966)
Yeah.
AkbarSheikh.com (36:47.918)
No.
AkbarSheikh.com (36:51.566)
Yeah. Yeah.
Yeah, and it's also like a stigma thing too, right and don't get me wrong man, you know, we're all sinners I'm a sinner and I'm not here to like tell you I'm not but a Lot of people have like for example Maybe their parents like forced them to go to Sunday school or forced them to go to church or whatever And they just didn't have a good relationship with that growing up Maybe they had a strict Sunday school teacher that would hit them with a ruler on the hand And so now you quote anything from the Bible. They're like traumatized. They don't want to hear about it
So that when Tony Robbins says it and there's dancing and there's music, he's like, F this, F that. And he's saying the same thing. They're open to that. Do you see what I'm saying? Yeah. Yeah.
Chad Kodary (37:32.604)
It's cause it's coming in a different delivery. It's a delivery that they can relate to. Right. So everybody, everybody relates to things in a different way. And that's just the way that they're relating to it. And that's why people, if you look at Russell Brunson, if you look at Tony Robbins, if you look at all of these big coaches that coach hundreds and thousands of people, right? Why is it that somebody would rather go to a Tony Robbins event than, you know, whatever a Damon John event and listen to him speak, it's because the delivery, they connect with that person. They connect with their values. They connect with their messaging.
AkbarSheikh.com (37:39.854)
Yeah.
AkbarSheikh.com (37:50.126)
Yeah.
AkbarSheikh.com (38:00.846)
Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I am not a Gary V fan. Um, but I have a picture of him in a big picture of him and I hugging in my office. And so you're like, well, why you're not, you're not a fan of this guy. And I honestly, I've never really consumed a lot of his content. I'm not, I'm just, you know, I'm not a fan. I just, just energetically, right. Some people, it's not personal. Just some people, I just get uncomfortable listening to him. It's nothing personal. Um,
Chad Kodary (38:02.428)
Right. That's really what it is.
Chad Kodary (38:20.636)
I haven't really either.
AkbarSheikh.com (38:29.966)
So why the hell do I have a big picture of him in my office? It's because I did attend one of his talks in, um, there was like this, like ClickFunnels, like launch event or something. And he was giving a talk in Boise, I think. And he's like, somebody asked him, like, why are you building a following? Like, why are you building a following? Why do you do all this content? And he said, man, I'm building a spaceship. I was like, what? He's like, yeah, I'm building a following who likes me.
and we're cultivating them so they're with me, they're like, and trust me. And I can point that spaceship at something like cancer and zap it away. And what does he mean by that? It's like, when you have a big following, it's like Gary V, if he threw like a charity auction tomorrow, this guy's going to raise millions at all. Yeah. And so like, he's like, if I want to raise millions of dollars to cure cancer, for example, which, you know, we're not going to get into it, but they already have the cure. They're just not letting it out because it's too profitable to...
Chad Kodary (39:15.452)
Oh yeah, oh yeah, in a second.
AkbarSheikh.com (39:26.734)
to give chemo, but just using it as an example. I like that. I like that idea where it's like, huh, you can do big things in an instant. So, you know, I do believe it's cool to put your message out there and to build a little bit of a following. I think there's benefit to it.
Chad Kodary (39:51.74)
Well, I'm going to ask you one more question before we wrap up here, because no running out of time. Um, I know, and I hear you preach about it and we've heard it multiple times on this podcast, make more, give more. What, what's, what's behind that and what are you doing to make more and give more? And what are you teaching people to do with make more, give more, just talk about that a little bit.
AkbarSheikh.com (40:01.518)
Yeah.
AkbarSheikh.com (40:05.07)
Yeah.
AkbarSheikh.com (40:12.398)
Yeah, I mean, make more give more is a little misunderstood or perhaps it's just evolved. And that's probably more of the truth is that it's probably evolved. How it originally started is, you know, I never had any money really in my life. So when I started making money, I wanted to give back. I think that's a very natural thing. I think most people do that. So my idea was give 10 percent of gross revenue.
AkbarSheikh.com (40:41.39)
And so my accountant, who is also the accountant for a lot of like internet marketers, like, Hey man, we're really proud of you. Like you seem to donate a lot. And I was like, Oh man, you guys screwed up my numbers, man. Like I don't donate that much. I only donate like 10%. And he's like, no, no, that's what we got. But he's like, your peers, they don't do anything like that. And then when he said that, I was just like, it was like somebody punched me in the gut, in the throat at the same time. I was like, why? Like that, why don't they do that?
I was like, okay, cool. Look, they just don't know that that's like the key to life and that's the key to giving. That's the key to growth. Like you will never go poor by giving and giving is actually the greatest growth hack out there. So it's like, okay, cool. They don't know about it. Okay. I guess I got to go tell them talk about it. And so that that's how it was really born where I was just like, you know, all right, well this is, and then that was that that's also my legacy that I want to leave is that like, you know, teaching people, why should you make more?
And I like fancy stuff too, bro. Like I've had the Bentley's and the Breitlings and all that stuff. And I like all that stuff. To be honest with you, I'm actually just looking at a Rolex the other day. And that's cool. But I think people should really make more to give more. And like out of my entire career, the things I'm most proud about is the water wells that we've built, the community centers that we've built, the people that we've given them the gift of vision by paying for their eye surgeries.
and so many beautiful projects that we've been involved in. That's the thing I'm most proud about. And even if I go bankrupt tomorrow, I don't particularly care because we've already made a pretty good impact. And nothing can take that away. No one's gonna go take these wells down. No one's gonna go take those people's eyeballs out. You know what I mean? It's done and that feels good and that brings to someone contentment.
Chad Kodary (42:27.388)
Yeah.
AkbarSheikh.com (42:33.294)
That's why I'm not like an alcoholic or like I got a drug problem or I'm not seeing like all these therapists is because there's contentment. And early in my life, I did not have contentment for most of my life. But the giving is the ultimate biohack for your own self. It's the ultimate growth hack for your business. You know, when business and whenever business is down, of course, gurus like to pretend that it's never down, but it's always looking down.
Chad Kodary (42:58.172)
always up and down. I don't know. Yeah. Even by the way, even when it's up, sometimes it can be down. That makes any sense.
AkbarSheikh.com (43:04.91)
That's interesting. Yeah. Whenever business is done, you know what I do? Logically, what do you do? You send an email out, you do a promotion, you make a special offer, you give a discount. What do you do? None of that. You know what I do? I go online and I go purchase a water well. That's what I do. I do something or I'll go sponsor some orphans or I'll do something like that. I go give and...
Because guess what? It goes back to the holy books because God promises. God promises you will or more. Yeah. So that's the promise that God gave and God's not a liar. And I've seen it. I've seen it in my own eyes. So that's the ultimate growth hack, man. So Make More, Give More has evolved from that. It's that too. It's very much still all that.
Chad Kodary (43:37.18)
Yep, giving, yep, when you give you get back times 10. Yeah.
AkbarSheikh.com (44:01.55)
But Make More Give More is actually also about making more of yourself to give more of yourself to your families, communities, favorite charities. It's about improving you as a human being, health, wealth, relationship. It's about, because dude, when business is sucky, you're not as good of a spouse. You're not as good as a parent. You're not as good as a person because you're just kind of like...
Chad Kodary (44:11.164)
Nice, I like that.
AkbarSheikh.com (44:29.166)
down a little bit, got you frustrated, stressed, you know? So Make More Give More is about, it's really about making, it's truly, you know, as cliche as this might sound, it's truly about making the world a better place through optimizing individuals and making them happier and more whole.
Chad Kodary (44:29.372)
You're down, yeah. Yep.
Chad Kodary (44:47.644)
Dude, I love that. Great message, man. Well, Akbar, we're out of time, brother. I appreciate you so much. By the way, for if anybody's watching this, obviously, I'm sure there'll be a bunch of people watching this. If they want to reach out to you, where's a good place that they can find you?
AkbarSheikh.com (45:03.31)
Man, I used to have this great...
get that funnel back up. I haven't done, I took a break from podcasts. I'm back now that I had this great funnel. I'd send people to our give my book for free. I don't think it's active anymore though, but, um, where can people go? Uh, I guess just go to my Facebook, uh, facebook .com slash coach, uh, Akbar AKBAR.
Chad Kodary (45:11.356)
Yeah.
Chad Kodary (45:26.3)
Yeah.
Chad Kodary (45:30.46)
Perfect. And I also see your website there, okbarksheik .com, right? There you go. That's a good place to...
AkbarSheikh.com (45:33.102)
Oh yeah, acrobatchic .com, it's not a bad place to go. How do you like that? To my point, nobody knows how to spell this name. I'm a top 1 % earner in my space and look at my website. You can't even spell it. You can't even pronounce it. So it all works.
Chad Kodary (45:43.292)
I love it man. Alright brother thank you so much for your time we appreciate you and hopefully we'll see you here back in the next couple of months crushing it as always and we love you brother man have a great day.
AkbarSheikh.com (45:56.846)
I appreciate you. Take care, guys.